A stand alone indoor waterpark

The water park portion of the Great Wolf deal is planned to occupy 86,138 square feet.

If someone wanted to build an indoor water park of that size and not build a hotel how much would it cost?

Let’s use one thousand dollars per square foot. Industry reports actually put the number at $600 but let’s use the thousand dollar number so we can remove whether or not we have allocated enough money to the project.

This park would cost $86,138,000.

If the city and county were to contribute half of this amount the total cost to the public would be $43 million with the developer paying the rest.

We would then have a property that paid $2,763,495 to our local taxing authorities each year (roughly half of that would go to the schools).

Then the hundreds of thousands of tourists that the city claims will be attracted would stay in our existing hotels and we would get the hotel occupancy taxes as well as the sales taxes that the city and county have given away.

Even this $43 million dollar deal would be stupid but it sure would beat the $100 million deal we have been stuck with.

The folly of this giveaway was known well before the election…but did not figure much in any campaign discussions. One incumbent and one newbie financed by the developers were elected easily. Efforts to get Mr. Trolley to comment on Great Wolf and explain his pre-determined vote have been met with silence. I don’t know anyone who doesn’t get how stupid and/or corrupt this deal is, but it doesn’t seem to be playing any role in the two run-offs…the powers that matter don’t want any publi comment.

And, think of that great big, empty hulk of a nothing after they shut the doors for a failure to attract enough business to make a profit. We will be paying for nothing for umpteen years, until some government agency or another takes it over at a knockoff price to use for a school or administrative offices, or some other damn thing.

No, John. It will not happen that way. Great Wolf has an option to buy this prime, taxpayer-owned real estate, worth millions, for just $20,000. If the water park resort doesn’t work, the firm that owns Great Wolf will still own the real estate. We will still be paying for something we no longer own. We will also be on the hook for an additional $40,000,000 in subsidies that the city guaranteed Great Wolf if the state doesn’t provide subsidies. The state isn’t going to do it. You and I will still be paying years from now. Gonzalez will be long gone.

I like that idea. Now you and I, and our families, could use the park without having to spend the night in their hotel. We already are paying for the right of access with OUR tax dollars given as incentives. That has been my major complaint with this whole deal from the beginning, that after all of the incentives we have given I still can’t use the main attraction without shelling out an extra $200 per night (pluse how much in Occupancy tax).

So they want our money for a facility we won’t be allowed to use because they are strictly for the tourists.

Well, there are only 10 people in the economic development department in the first place. These people were moved out of City Hall and into a building owned by Paul Foster to the tune of $50,000 a month rent. Hey we just saved another $600,000 a year.